THE STATE.
A  BEFORE    T  I HO 
BEFORE THE
RHODE ISLAND ALPHA
OF THE
PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY,
AT BROWN UNIVERSITY,
SEPTEMBER 2, 1862,
BY THATCHER THAYER, D. D.
PROVIDENCE:
SIDNEY S. RIDER, 17 WESTMINSTER STREET.
1862.








0 OR A T I O NI.
THERE seems no choice of themes at this time.
One overmastering thought constrains us, and letters
must be subordinate in the scholar's mind to that
whose idea is essential to the completeness of all letters and philosophy and religion itself. For God
himself, in a very terrible way, is educating us up to
the doctrine and appreciation of that noblest form
and fruit of society,-THE STATE. Whatever it was
needful to think and do for individual development,
now plainly, since by great exigencies we are forced
to act, is it reverential to think in the direction of
the whole. Indeed, the Divine method proceeds in
large part by unities, and doubtless one significance
of this moment in our history is a recoil from individualism and a vindication of social unity. We are
obeying a mighty conservative instinct to preserve
and confirm the State. Better, certainly, is it to pray
for it, and die for it,-but it is also well to think it
out, and enunciate it in high places.
So, then, the State is not a soulless aggregate of
individuals, but is itself a noble Life, and we are
living in it and out from it. This day we are not so




4
many men and women with names, baptized or unbaptized, fools or wise, workers or lazy, only; not
so many members of families or of college merely,
not even born only in the State of Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations. No, thank God, we are participants of a higher National Existence. Its larger,
deeper pulsations throb within us. Ours is this lofty
State consciousness, becoming more distinct, and,
please Heaven! we do not mean to part with it,
come what may. This is the moment for us to be in
sympathy with the worthiest minds of every age
upon this grand theme, from the great Athenian
downward, and, with John Milton, to conceive of the
State as of "one huge Christian Personage, one
mighty growth and stature of an honest man, as big
and compact in virtue as in body."
It is a great thing, and worth great sacrifices, to
attain the full conception of this. With a comprehension enlarged by the views opening upon us, and
made more luminous by their contrasts; with an
earnestness becoming more intense through the
tragic realities of this hour, let us then apprehend
it, First, as directly authorized in its origin, alike
by the revealed word and the natural law of God,
not as asking leave to be through some supererogatory compact of men; but through a certain divine
necessity working in the constitution of things,whereby society must crystallize in'to State forms. Scope
enough is left for the human will to act in all responsibility, yet with no exception in the highest of all
spheres,-the moral,-allowed to mar the universal
order, but anarchy made as impossible as chaos; and
this from honest rudiments, up to most complete po



litical organization, manifested as a condition of social
being, into which men come without being committed
as to whether they agree to be governed, any more
than whether they agree to be born at all. Secondly,
Set before the mind the substance and functions of
the State. Its substance is summarily government;
legislative, in that it enacts laws out of existing obligations; judicial, in that it discriminates according
to those laws; and executive, in that it secures the
observance of law. Then its functions, —How high
are these? Towards God, it is, whether expressed
or not, the mightiest illustration of the Supreme Divine State in which men exist. All our great ideas
need to be educated; and this most comprehensive
one, that we are subjects of God's moral government, is taught us through the ages by the State.
For, notice how it makes us familiar with intelligent
will, moving and controlling immense activities, and
inculcates upon us, through the compression of our
swollen individuality, and the suggestion of our accountability to administered law, that we were formed to be under government, and that true liberty is
harmony with law.
But the function of the State towards men is the
aspect most immediately concerning us. Observe
how various and essential this is. It restrains, ever
so gently or violently, with consciousness or unconsciousness on our part. Oh, what would not men do
and be but for this restraining force! Again, it pro.
tects. Think how the State guards us! Asleep or
awake, we are within its outstretched arms, and its
watchful eye is ever upon us and ours. Abroad, its
mere touch on wax acts like a talisman, and means




6
fleets and armies, if the solitary traveller be injured,
as it says, " Take heed what thou doest, for this man
is a Roman."' Once more, consider its energy in developing the individual. Its compacted membership,
and its organic life, like the action of a harmonious
body upon the smallest part, tend to start and sustain all growth. What were man outside of the
State'? Wherever, by some extraordinary circumstances, he is found in a condition approaching this,
he presents the most humiliating phenomena of partial, inferior, nay, stagnant humanity. The animal, or
rather the vegetable, predominates in him. But as
the vine stock supplies each leaf with juice to fill out
its own proportion, so the mighty unity of the State
communicates its life to each of us; and our own
identity is more distinct, because of this very derived
vigor.
The topic which interests us most is, however,
the Form of the State. Here, mark how the utmost
variety of this is consistent with integrity of origin
and substance. The State is too much a creature of
God not to be capable of a wide range of modification. In this it must resemble all parts of nature
where substantial properties remain through very
great changes in outward conditions, and where utility and beauty depend to a great extent on this combination. So is it like art and all mind, and home.
So it agrees with the church, which sublimely rebukes
all attempts to confine its divine identity within any
form, by its manifestation of Christian doctrine and
life in so many organizations; and forbids the assertion of immunity from heresy and sin by a painfully
suggestive history common to all In a word, it is




like man himself, who can repeat almost endlessly
types of human nature, and yet remain identical.
So far, then, from committing the divine idea of the
State to the narrow mould of one form, and thus contradicting all analogies of creation and providence,
as well as opposing it to all growth of man, the
true conception of the State, as Divine, is that which
meets all possible exigencies of society, by variety of
forms. And this view is confirmed when we consider
the manner in which such variety occurs. Thus, a
change in the form of the State may be brought
about by an imperceptible process going on like
some of the processes in nature, or in human opinion.
This were the highest conceivable mode, and one
which might wholly prevail, were there. no inward
disturbing elements. Something of this, indeed, we
can trace in the histories of States in which, without
violence, and even insensibly, the form has changed.
Yet another mode is that of constitutional changes,
where, with more or less agitation, and under different motives, the acting government conducts its own
modification. This, too, is more honorable to human
nature, and we have illustrations enough of this in
history to show what extremes might be avoided.
Then comes the last and exhaustive mode,-Revolution, in which, with more or less violence, and on
right or wrong occasions, men avail themselves of
the final prerogative in moral beings, to obey God
rather than man, and under peril of condemnation,
if they mistake duty, accept the alternatives of a
struggle, and change the form into what the exigencies of society demand. - This, alas, is the more common mode, and is a humiliating comment on the ina



8
bility of man to develope harmoniously. But even
revolution leaves intact the sacredness of the State.
Nay, it is a homage paid by human nature in its
wildest movement to government, in that it invokes
supremest right, and is an appeal from wrongs and
infractions of obligation to the majesty of Law. And
this, not with the self-complacent notion that sincerity makes truth and a higher law, and so releases
from wrong the simply honest revolutionist; but
with solemn acceptance of the same condition which
guards truth in the physical domain, where men have
to act in the certainty that God holds them under
penalty of explosion, and poisons, and all sorts of
evil consequences, not to what they think, but to
what is true.
Thus far, all concerns the form, and touches not
the substance of the State. As yet there is no such
self-assertion as, that men originate their duty to
obey, continue it by a perpetually recurring consent, and make it cease by an arbitrary act of will.
The aberrations thus far are within defined limits.
We conceive of these modes as in the sphere of State
transformation, and however much room there is in
them for hopeful and sad material of history, we still
remain at a wide remove from the abyss where that
which Plato held in pure reason, and Paul magnified
by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, perishes in the
infernal negation of government by Secession. This,
then, is the doctrine of the State which we believe
is forming into intelligent conception, through the
resistless logic of events, forcing us upon high ground.
That our actual State is Democratic, affects not the
strength of the idea. Let others hold it under forms




of autocracy, or of constitutional monarchy. We
were shaped into this form of Democracy by a process as rigid and sovereign As that which is represented in forming plants out of star dust. We grew
into it, as plants grow; for our roots run down deep
and wide into a historic past. Nay, to fulfil all analogies, we were born in due time. We early asserted
our national life, not from the deliberating inventions of men, but the necessities of elements working beneath and within all conventions, compelling
them to act. The ease and naturalness with which
the government entered upon an announced and
fully conscious existence, is as sufficient a proof of
national life, as the jointed limbs and intending mind
are of a living man. The State stood up, one great
personality, instinct with organic, pervading energy,
and not a company of merchants banded for traffic,
nor a ship's crew gathered for a voyage. It took its
place among the governments of earth, itself a myriad-crowned Democracy among monarchies and empires, challenging recognition, arrogant, if you will,
ofttimes wicked, as other States, yet not without some sense of God; in all respects, a State,
with the consciousness, not of parts, but of a whole,
its citizens abroad looking up not to pelican and rattle-snake banners, but to yon broad ensign, floating
as far and proudly as the red cross of England. Thus
has it continued, hardened into unity by the lapse
and the conflicts of time. The agony of this moment shows that deeper than mere sentiment, or
any conviction of interest, the instinct of a national
existence has been roused, and merges all questions
in its vast vitality. These later movements, resem2




10
bling in their fearful earnestness the determined purpose of France in her darkest hour, to maintain her
unity, are the involuntary proofs of an increasing
horror at the unnaturalness, as well as the wickedness, of dismemberment. No! by the tumultuous
feelings which struggle in us, and which I dare not
analyze, by all the glorious past, and the ominous future, this government passes not away as a shape
of air. No palmetto rod tipped with ebony can dissolve it in magic quiet. No conjuror's mouth can
utter a spell mighty enough to resolve harmoniously
the mystic numbers of the State. If it perish, it
perishes like giant Rome, limb torn from limb, of one
great body. So, then, we are shut up to this actual
American Democracy, as the State whose idea we
must cherish, and whose history we must accomplish, something, indeed, capable of disastrous end,
but also of glorious possibilities, something for the
scholar and Christian to dwell upon and honor,
something to pray and fight for, something to live
and die for!
And this form of the State is now subjected to perilous trial. At such a time, while the largest thoughts
and the noblest impulses will hold us firm to our conclusions, there are narrower aspects and baser feelings which will work in us to weaken them. Let us
consider some of these side views. Here, as in every
thing human, we must proceed by comparison. There
is a choice between sinners, is after all the utmost we
can affirm of men. Before God we will indeed confess. Not to Him will we utter any thing but humblest acknowledgments of our abuse of His goodness. of our failure to fulfil the magnificent destiny




11
He traced for us. Not even in face of our own ideal,
will we deny our grievous defects. But when other
national sinners make us the subject of a homily on
the faults of democracy, we lift our heads and challenge their judgment. Shall France exult over us?
or her Guizot use us to point the moral of his next
pamphlet on this theme? At what awful expense
to the highest civilization has she attained glory and
the power of corrupting Europe at will? Dare she
to-morrow disband only a few myriads of her soldiers, and trust civil order and; Mon Empereur" to
the people? Does she present the fairest conception
of the State? Ah, let her St. Hilaires tell us the
profound hurt of France, where unteachable Bourbons and impracticable reformers wait the moment
of convulsion. Shall Austria lecture us on the blessings of Imperialism, and illustrate its superiority by
the benefits to society of the Hapsburgs? Or must we
serve all our humility for England's reproof? listen
reverently to Lord Brougham's last chapter of his
political philosophy, composed in his peerage and
dotage both, and accept English glorification of the
British empire as the best illustration of the State?
We will not review her distant past. But what are
her national results, to justify her Alisons' and Blackwoods' assumptions of superiority? It is not a question now  of her achievements in arts, and other
civilization, upon English soil; nor of what her citizens have accomplished for the world's evangelization. Nothing shall provoke us to forget these;
but we are on trial in the world's history; our present impugners are our own monarchical and aristocratic kindred; and we must rightly compare the




12
faults of States, ere we confess Democracy a failure,
and Democrats sinners above others. What has she
to say for her foreign relations? When has that
meteor flag ceased to wave in quarrel with some
other nation? What great principle of right has
she ever warred to maintain? For what high purpose has she kept up her costly armaments?  Let
the judgment of Europe answer, if she does not set
more store by her calico than by the rights of other
people. Has Napoleon's estimate of her foreign
policy been proved to be harsh? and what alternative have we from De Tocqueville's severe philosophy of England's international morality? Do her
eulogists forget that the same age has seen her holding up Bonaparte as the very Devil, battling him
to the death for great ideas, and then bowing reverently at his tomb in company with Mephistophiles,
his nephew, under a deep conviction of power?
Let John Chinaman testify whether she puts justice
above the price of drugs. And when she lifts her
voice, and cants worse than any conventicle about
the aggressive spirit of Democratic States, let India
say if the wild Northman blood which flows in us
from her, has not urged the Znglish State to conquests which our Democracy never dreamed of.
Thus much for England abroad. If it be the necessary outworking of her inward State-life, so much
then is there to abate her boasting over others. But
what of that inward life? What changes quite on
the verge of revolution! Despite her vaunted system of checks, she could not pass her corn laws
without making Peers faster than they were born.
What is that condition of things which makes her




13
fear convulsion when a foreign crop fails? and what
that constitution of society, where the soil is so disposed of that it cannot feed its own children? But
what has the State done for the people? With unequalled resources, how much has she effected in the
elevation of her masses? Her pauper list is astounding; her criminal register affrights her own officials; and her plethoric establishment is embedded
in a population whose lowest strata are hard upon
heathenesse. Save for emigration, and that to the
very land whose institutions she disparages, what
had been the history, ere this, of the English State?
Oh, with what feelings must Americans regard England! We would love her, if she would let us; for
she is our mother country. Her blood flows in our
veins. Her very names are ours; her language and
her Christianity. We did not ask her arms or money;
but, one word of sympathy with us, in this crisis of
our history, had bound us to her forever. Yes, most
various are the emotions with which we look at the
different aspects of England. Land of lordly pride
and priestly arrogance; yet of intelligent and determined freemen! Land of scholars; yet of brutal
ignorance! Land where abounds every grace that
illustrates Christianity; yet where rank and foul irreligion riots in masses of humanity! Land of gentlemen, whose language and bearing make us proud
of our race; and yet of boors, whose degradation
might shame us of our species! Land of conflict and
triumph too, of constitutional liberty, firm when
other nations are rocking; and agitating reform
when others are stagnant. Land of our Fathers,
that gave us all we have in church and state and




14
home, all liberty, all high inspirations, all great
works of mind and heart, and with them the curse
of mammon and slavery, too! Seen from one point
of view, behold Britannia, a majestic form, serene
with intelligence, the dispenser of Christian civilization to subject millions. We look again, and lo! a
hideous figure, the hugest incarnation of Pharisaism,
a crowned Tartuffe among the nations, her conscience torpid with opium, her hearing stopped with
cotton and her homilies on forbearance choking
with the blood of tortured Sepoys! No, we cannot
see that other forms present the State in such comparison as to authorize any affectation of superiority
on their part. What has the past proved? Alison
wrote ten weary volumes in special plea against democracy. He meant to show that its inherent badness was such, that it could not worthily develope
the State. He ends with the conclusion which his
country's catechism might have taught him; and in
his closing chapter dares not affirm any thing more
than that the sin in human nature will spoil any
form of government,-a very safe assertion, and tolerably modest for a Scotch tory, in review of the
troubles which kings and nobles have made in the
British islands during their whole history; to say
nothing of Europe and the rest of mankind. This,
we admit painfully of our mode of making real the
State. We are learning more of that sin every day,
but then it is only Democratic so far as to be identical,
while the largest part is human, and especially AngloSaxon.
There is something singularly unfair in the way in
which writers treat this question. They strangely omit




15
to draw even fair inferences from the unworthy exhibition of the state by other forms, while the failure of the Democratic has been judged in advance.
Thus what injustice has been done to ancient
Athens! But Grote has shown with an exactness
which every scholar must prize, and a comprehensiveness and fairness worthy of the historic spirit,
that she of all Greece rendered best the idea of the
State. The truest conception of the public, the
greatest reverence for law, were really found in
her Democracy. And now, when this great hour of
trial brings out a humiliating distrust of the State as
constituted here, and men express doubt of its form,
it becomes us to recogniz( what results of the
State have been accomplished during its life of near
a century. It is difficult to bear with some among
us, who utter their Jeremiads, not against evil in
all governments, but our monopoly of it; and this
directly in the face of wondrous benefits. Why
dwell on them? Can any man who has travelled to
any purpose besides pictures and French cookery,
or who reads and thinks beyolnd his small circle of
reactionists, fail to see them?  Protection to life
and property, the well-being of millions, the large
provisions of education, the happiness and purity
of homes, the great ends of justice'answered, the
quiet of honest industry, the peaceful tenor of personal tastes and civil order not jostled even by the
tread of armed men, and the church of Christ
stronger this hour in the hearts of the people than
if upheld by the arm of power. May we not refer
to a fair proportion of character nurtured in this De



16
mocracy?  If it has produced  demagogues like
other countries, yet has it not also had statesmen
the peers of any foreign land? If it has brought
forth as shallow ignoramuses and self-conceited pretenders, as those who disgrace European letters,
has it not also developed genuine scholars and humble thinkers? If it has its knaves in business, and
unscrupulous speculators and repudiators of honest
debts, to join in shameful fellowship with commercial
dishonesty abroad, yet has it not also merchants of as
pure integrity and as incapable of base traffic as any
across the water? If the bones of American slavetraders pollute the soil of Africa, awaiting resurrection along with men-stealers from Liverpool, yet
there too have fallen holy souls, whose sacrifice rises
like fragrant incense, and joins, before the throne of
God, the offering of precious lives from England!
Do other forms of the State boast of peculiar loyalty
to a reigning person? yet the state here has developed loyalty to itself, something deeper than personal reverence, an instinct of deference to existing authority, something higher than sentiment a
principle of obedience to law the rich and poor
rising to maintain government, and with the past
thrilling them, meaning to maintain it at every cost.
Surely, these are fair fruits of the State! Nor has
any thing occurred in this present exigency, which
might not have happened in any other form. The
species of ambitious men who would rather reign in
hell than serve in heaven, is not peculiar to democratic institutions. If slavery be a fruitful source of
trouble here, so might it be in any government. If
the local independence of parts of the country, as ex



17
pressed in the theory of extravagant state rights,
the practice of secession, against which some provision was made, which years ago De Tocqueville
pointed out, and of whose danger our noblest
fathers warned us, has at last, after divers manifestations, swollen into this monstrous self-assertion,
under the fever heat of slavery, and is the real peril
of this hour; yet this too, is not the especial defect
of Democracy. It has been, and is fruitful in other
forms. How long was Great Britain in consolidating her unity? Nay, it is not secure yet. Witness
the necessity of transplanting the Celtic Irish, and
colonizing Ireland from England and Scotland. It
was longer yet before the boasted unity of France
was complete; and the terrible chapter of La Vendee is yet recent. Recall the war of the Sonderbund
in Switzerland,-the struggle nearest like ours, and
full of instruction how soonest to end it. Spain has
had her experience; Germany must do something
more than sing "Ein Deutschland," before she becomes so; and Italy too, even after the solemn vote
and bloody welding together of her beautiful provinces, must overcome various repulsions ere she
grows into one kingdom. No! this is something
common to all governments. We are at one of those
points in a nation's history, which all must reach,
when the elements are either to settle into firmer
compactness, or disintegrate more entirely.
Doubtless the question is made more difficult by
slavery; but the issue turns on the inward force of
the state to fuse these elements. Our fathers tried
to spare us this crisis; but it has come upon us, and
we must meet it. But when in comparison with




18
other governments, men distinguish this as endangered, we look out on this actual earth, and wonder
at this peculiar distrust. For this democratic State
is not the only one to dread the future! Will Germany shape quietly into the grand development
her philosophers and scholars write out for her?
Shall the French Empire peacefully descend to the
little Zouave who now plays in the Tuileries? Has
the future no terrors for England? When the good
Victoria sleeps with her fathers, can no contingencies
arise? Will John Bull endure to the end such expense for German blood? Believe you he will sing
"God save the King," and pay his debts for another
George the Fourth? The future! ah, perhaps the
world will not last long. Monarchies, democracy,
hierarchies and all may vanish from the wearied
scene of human wickedness and folly. But if Providence should not accept the suggestions of Dr. Cumming and his impatient folk on the eschatology, any
more than it consulted Ptolemy on the creation of
the world, and conclude not to burn up yet this
magnificent earth; if long ages of history are yet to
come, and many an humbling lesson is to be given
to national pride that this conceit may be taken out
of men, who can tell what form of government
shall suffer most before humanity develope out the
noblest idea of the State? Into that future we look
tremblingly, as becometh those who believe in the
fearful scope of the human will above and within
material forces, in the moral government of God,
and his clearly manifested mode of redeeming
through suffering. But we look hopefully too, because we believe in great truths to be vindicated,




19
and in great blessings to come through chastisements. But we do not see how we can improve
the prospects of the State in the future, by any
change of forms, since God is plainly rebuking men
in them all.
Besides, if we take the counsel of European advisers and try a king, whom shall we send for? Bomba,
-he is without charge, and doubtless would listen to
a call; but I question if the parish would agree upon
him. The kindly Alexander has at present his hands
full of the slave matter, and we would rather wait to
see how he manages that which our autocrats on
both sides cannot dispose of. Shall it be the great
Adroit on the French throne? Ah! some of the
American clergy might have accepted the uncle, but
I query if many could be found to consent to the
nephew, with his " Ideas Napoleonic." Shall we import from England? Ah! not one word of disrespect
for the queenly English wife and mother. All honor
to her for whom Americans will pray, " God save
her," as truly as her own subjects; but then I fear
the farmers would not be willing to support all the
Coburgs.
A far different question, however, is that which
concerns the place of a higher class in the State.
For there must be such, and democracy is no exception to this part of social crystallization. Our choice
is to determine who shall be the higher class,-the
Arisloi; and indeed very much depends on our settlement of this. An aristocracy of family is not possible. In England, even, they are sadly mixed, and
plebeian blood flows widely in aristocratic veins.
But here, where we know each other's pedigree with




20
painful accuracy, the confusion is hopeless. The
holes of the pit are quite recent from which the
most pretentious were digged. Each noble house,
unfortunately, like Jonathan Oldbuck's piece of antiquity, has some who "mind the bigging o't."  Shall
it be an aristocracy of wealth? Yes, rightly, so far as
it represents talent that achieved and maintains it; so
far as it is employed to refine the taste, improve the
manners, and bless society. Indeed, it is only justice
to honor the rich who generously furnish means to
establish a nobler aristocracy than themselves. But
let all men judge if in fact the State is furnished
with a higher class, worthy of the social needs, by
the operations of wealth! Do thk mass of our patricians adorn place by gifts of intellect and fine culture and grace of bearing? I will not ask if they
have the especial virtues of Christianity; for the
world has long since proved that men may be religious without moral goodness, dogmatic without
life, and. ecclesiastical without being Christian! Do
their youth promise the material for eminence? Are
they first in scholarly attainments? employing their
means for high pursuits? Nay, tell us what constitutes admission to the clubs, and drawing-rooms, and
alliances of our Belgravias and St. Germains, besides
money and lacquer. Alas, for this type of American
aristocracy, which Europe scorns; and to whose simian God so many among us sacrifice affection, manhood, and religion itself! How grimly nature, who
will accept only reality, smiles at all our arbitrary
agreements, and quietly vindicates God's truth. You
may entrench dulness, ignorance, and sensuality
within riches; you may call off talent from educa



21
tion, and force bright intellects despoiled of finished
discipline into money making; but you cannot thus
form a higher class. But shall there be an aristocracy of genuine superiors,-the Aristotelian,-the true,
who shall preside by right of the strongest?  Aye! a
thousand times, aye! with endowments of mind elilarged and quickened and disciplined by thorough
training; men raised naturally above the average,
and in such proportion as to be a recognized class,
not by any prescription, asking no prerogatives, but
simply taking a higher place by virtue of fitness;
from whom may come statesmen and legislators
and the professions; and fitting occupants for
station; yes, indeed, give us such an aristocracy; for
God in his word, and his constitution of society, and
in his history of states, teaches us to seek it; something to which men may worthily pay reverence,
and young men look up. This, please God! if we
get through this struggle a State, we will urge as
strongly as the education of the mass; and we will
urge it now. For indeed the mass have had great
attention to their culture; and nobly have they approved themselves, and vindicated the wisdom of our
fathers in establishing this broad basis of public intelligence. Nay, they will vote themselves schools;
and let them do so! But the very contrast with the
people only enforces our perception of the need of a
higher class to accomplish this goodly structure.
This is a great want. When we rise above general
education, our standard is low. Too much is left to
the individual. There is no system to work by even
pressure, and elevate any sufficient number, while the
instincts of action, and the craving for immediate re



22
sults, draw the great proportion scantily furnished,
into the vortex of public life. Then add to this, the
almost despotic influence of business, the easier eminence of wealth, which absorbs so much talent away
from study; and how can we escape deficiency in
this part? Years ago, the most thoughtful observer
of our institutions noted it, and in a philosophical
and kindly spirit pointed out its deformity and danger. Is not this deficiency apparent now?  We
must look at this in severer comparison than may be
agreeable to our pride. The completeness of a great
State demands an honest sense of any unfaithfulness
to its idea.
But it is not uncommon to hear that the people
will never appreciate a higher class; that there are
already enough of the right men for all eminence; but
that they shrink from the arts necessary to win the
public. And then it is not unusual to apply to these
actually existing, but unappreciated, capacities, certain famous words often repeated with soft unction
for neglected souls, about "gems of purest ray in
caves of ocean;" and "flowers wasting sweetness
on desert air;" and " village Hampdens;" and "mute,
inglorious Miltons;" and "guiltless Cromwells."
Now the people cannot help appreciating a higher
class if there be one. God made men to look up.
They will always have some recognized superiors.
The only question is, what their type shall be.
When, in history, from Pericles down, did the mass
ever refuse to own the leading of superior men?
The strongest must conquer; and the infidel's sneer
hides in it the Christian's faith. Create such a class,
and never fear that the people will not appreciate




23
them. But what of unappreciated worth itself?
Did you ever know one of these complainers who
did not himself, or his friends for him, use arts sufficient to attract the public? And what of unconscious merit? Are men ordinarily so very modest
as to underrate their abilities? Do we educate up
to such ideals as awe with a sense of responsibility?
What office in church or state requires a bounty to
induce, or a draft to compel, acceptance? On the
other hand, it remains to be proved that any man
can be kept out of his place in this roomy world and
exciting country. It is easy to find men unequal to
their positions, but very difficult to find any superior
to them. The divine order leaves not things so uncertain, or the high qualities of men and their uses
unrelated. We may be sure that no gems are lost
even in unfathomable caves of ocean; and no
traveller of genuine feeling ever saw a flower in the
desert, or on the edge of a glacier, who did not thank
God for placing it there; or who thought its fragrance wasted. And so with men. If there be any
Hampdens in our villages, we may be certain they
will find full scope for their talents where they are;
and if they be really fit for Congress, they need no
caucus nor contracts to send them there. Real Miltons too, are never mute nor inglorious. When
they come, they bring God's warrant of imperishable
song; and you need not have any more apprehension
that their gifts will be unrecognized, than that the
note of the lark, or the flight of the eagle will be
mistaken among the myriads of grasshoppers which
chirp and skip along our fields. We see no indication of Cromwells in these parts, among those who




24
safely declaim most about him. We have nothing
of this kind; the large comprehension, the iron will,
the unblenching courage. Our sort are "Cguiltless,"
at least, of fight, and only daring on paper. And
though doubtless a self-denying ordinance would not
be amiss in our parliament, yet who will pass it? Rest
quiet; if there be a Cromwell in the land, he will do
all his work, and rooms will be ready for him in the
White House, if that be his mission. No, it is safer
to accept the humbling conclusion that if a higher
class do not lead in all the relations of society, it
is because we have not such a higher class, and must
create it. God indeed must give the brains and
blood to form master minds; but we have already
given the systems of education which we can enlarge
and apply to make the most of average talent, which
shall produce those master minds. For we read
history to little purpose, if we think these shoot up
from uncultivated and fallow soil. In vain we echo
Carlyle's cry, and repeat Tennyson's poetry about the
"coming man." In vain we catch up each incomplete personage whom some glaring accident, some
combination of favorable circumstances, or some prejudice of party in our ever shifting scenes, may have
thrust into prominence, without basis of genius or
stable acquisitions. This is not the stuff out of which
that mysterious individual," the coming man," is made.
Not so works God in history. His Moses and Pericles; his Pauls, and Augustines, and Luthers come
with culture as well as gifts. Not England's money
nor her pedigree have made her State; but her
higher class, formed of Lords and Commons alike by
her schools and universities, have led in arts and




25
arms the industry and energy of the people, up to
her present greatness. The forming men in our
own early history constituted such a class in the
then existing proportions of society; and they who
look for men equal to the grave emergencies and ordinary concerns of public life to arise spontaneously
from an unprepared soil, ought to have learned
better by this time. We hear a great deal of selfmade men; but save as all truly educated men are such,
let the experience of every department in life answer if self-made men are not poorly made, in every
one's judgment but their own. Allowing that genius
may dispense with much of the training indispensable to the great average, or rather can appropriate it
more entirely and rapidly, yet genius is too rare
for society to live by. Meanwhile, the politician
hastily extemporized, or merely practised in details
of faction, cannot fill the exalted office of the statesman, whose mind has been rendered comprehensive
and discriminating by long and generous discipline,
and who brings to public affairs the experience of
history, and the practice of States. Again, the man
who is so little acquainted with the works of older
and better thinkers, as to put forth his own crude
speculations with the assumption of original thought,
and the confidence of ultimate truth, cannot meet
those intellectual wants which demand in the highest
exercise of mind an exhaustive acquaintance with past
philosophy and science. Nor so long as societvy has
needs which create and continue the several professions, can any thing short of a high standard suffice
for the worthy idea of the State we are contemplating. What is more humiliating and mischievous
4




26
than the various caricatures of the physician's noble
calling, whose very completeness implies a long and
reverential study of nature? And what can take
the place in the community of a body of accomplished advocates and jurists? There is no brighter
record in history of regard for constitutional freedom than can be shown by the superior class of
lawyers. They have withstood alike kingly prerogatives and popular lawlessness, in moments of greatest peril to liberty. Woe indeed to the State, if a
low standard in this profession expose it to the assaults of the destructive, and substitute the changing
will of the mass for the firm embodiment of justice,
and the tranquil voice of law. There is no time
now for a worthy plea in behalf of a highly educated ministry. But it is enough to say, that in a
country where sacred conventionalisms cannot stand
the pressure of actual moral wants, we may be sure
that no embryo, partial gifts, no phosphorescent rhetoric, no imperfect culture can meet the exigencies
of truth, and faith, which require men trained in severest discipline of mind and heart, who shall not have to
go out of their absorbing work for mental stimulus;
whose awful ideal of pastoral excellence shall keep
them  engrossed and humble; and whose "Nolo
episcopari" in the smallest parish shall be felt as
truly as in the largest field of Christendom.
Yes, we admit this great need. Who is there in
this hour, when the people are honoring popular education so nobly, but must feel the want of a fitting
climax to that education? Who will not comprehend in his idea of the State, this essential part?
Surely, this is the place to utter the claims of a




27
higher class of educated men. You will respond to
it. Aye, by our conscious defects, let us seek to
raise others to a worthier capacity. That great
conception of a State, now working out in agony,
calls for this at our hands. This is no episode in
history, no struggle of an hour; but itself the inevitable development of the past, it is the forming of
a vast future. Let us build while we fight. Give
those coming years of the Republic a higher class to
guide their course and represent their destinies. If
sacrifice be demanded, then let it be of men worth
the offering; for we live in a world where no great
good comes but through sacrifice, whether it be for
the salvation of men, or for the redemption of a nation. As there is nothing in the Democratic form of
the State which encloses our national life, to forbid
the very highest excellence of this part, so may it
increase its central force without disturbing its essential structure. The very efforts it puts forth to
preserve itself may consolidate the State. Every
violent pressure may bind its sections into more substantial unity. Each victory and defeat may weld
us together more closely. The rapid commingling
and perpetual confluence of our armies may soften
down the distinctions of territorial lines. The government to which we are giving bur choicest lives
may be cemented anew with our blood, and become
the object of exclusive reverence; while the place
of its occupancy guarded so jealously against the
foul conspiracy, may win a regard such as Romans
had for the Capitol.. Amid the many evils of the
camp, may not our young men learn more subordination; and if at last this great conflict, after




28
years of suffering, end in the full vindication of government, and the State emerge, worn indeed, humbled but strong, may we not hope from the course
of Providence, that all ties of authority will grow
stronger, and that in church, and home, and school,
and every relation, men will pay more reverence.
Nay, with law so terribly magnified, God himself, as
He hath done before in analogous circumstances, may
visit with His peculiar blessings our people; and in
after years, when men tell of the great Secession,
they may speak of the great Awakening that followed its rebuke in history.
But of one thing we may be assured, come weal or
woe, the State with us must be Democratic. Like it
or not, we are shut up to this. The people have
the power; they will never give it up. How can
we reason differently from the nature of man and
the great courses of history? As surely as the manchild comes of age, and takes his property, though
he use it badly, so surely must the Demos every
where rise to government. They know this abroad.
It is only a question of time; and what is that in
God's vast periods? Hence the "fear of change perplexes monarchs;" and beneath the confidence with
which writers assert the impossibility of the Democratic State, is evident the conviction that to this
form society finally tends. But here there is no
question of time; no possible alternative. We must
work out the problem of the State in Democracy.
What its proportions and character,-that, indeed, is
the tremendous issue with us. If through our selfishness and cowardice, we be proved incapable of
the mighty outline so plainly traced out by the Di



29
vine architect, and we cannot maintain this unity,
then lost to us is the noblest destiny ever offered to
man since the doom of God's ancient people. Oh,
who wants to live in such a degradation! No great
idea of the State, characterizing and pervading all
human interests, but every thing diminished and
petty; men dwarfed and bitter in sectionalisms; provincial literatures; philosophies narrowed by lines
of territory; religion circumscribed by spaces; and
communities dashing against each other in endless
strifes. Oh, think how those who come after, will
curse us! Think how they who shall have waited
for our failure, will look on and say, " These men began to build and were not able to finish." But if,
rising to the great meaning of this trial, through
God's grace we fully meet the emergency and accept but one conclusion,-though it cost every thing
to reach it,-then, indeed, life is worth living. Then
we shall complete this noble structure, and the State
in majesty and beauty shall fulfill its noblest ends
and be a fitting sphere for every grand conception, for
every human and divine concern. Such we believe
to be the lesson of this hour,-to elevate the fundamental dogma of the State to its right place in
truth and morality. Yes, the State above individuals, as God above all! To this, Hls great creature,
He is training us to give up every thing. No tie of
home is too sacred, no interest, nor joy of self is to
weigh a moment in comparison. Other questions,
indeed, mingle with this; and it may be while this
comprehensive one is agitating, they shall be disposed of. If uncontrollable complications force them
into issue with national existence, then, as men




30
to save a laboring bark, throw overboard things engaged to be carried, why, overboard with any thing
that would sink the great ship of State! But now,
one overmastering question should rule the hour;
no mixed issue, but a grand vital doctrine; no blind,
quaking morass of opinions and feelings, but a broad
adamantine platform, on which one may stand firm
amid factious dictations and dilettanti, declamation
and changeful reactions; conscious of truth dear to
Almighty God, had in charge by the ages, magnified
by the cross of Christ, and vindicated by the eternal
judgment. Then raise high to-day the great acclaim
of holy love of country. "If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I
do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the
roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above
my chief joy!"