Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-07-21
One and the Same Rule of Right.

Who has told you, fond man to regard
that as a glory when performed by a nation,
which is condemned as a crime and a barba-
rlsm, when committed by an individual 3
In what vain conceit of wisdom and virtue
do you find this incongruous morality 3
Where is it declared, that God, who is no
respecier of persons, Is a respecter Of multi
tudes! Whence do you draw the partial
laws of a powerful and impartial God q
Man is immortal but States are MORTAL
lie has a higher destiny than States. Shall
States be less amenable 10 the great moral
laws? Each individual is an atom of the
mass. Must not The mass be like the indi-
vlduals OF which 1t is composed! Shall the
mass do what individuals may not do! Ne.
The same moral laws which govern indivi-
dualS govern masses, as the same laws in
nature prevail over large and small, control
ling the fall of an apple and the orbits of the
planets. 1t was the beautiful discovery of
Newton, that gravity is a universal property
of matter, a law obeyed by every particle in
reference TO every other particle, and connect
ing the celestial mechanism with terrestrial
phenomena. So the Rule Of Right, which
binds the single individual, binds two or
three when gathered together-binds con-
ventlonS and congregations of men-binds
villages, towns and clties-binds states, ma
tons and empires-clasps the whole human
family in its seven-fold embrace nay more,
Beyond the flaming bounds of place and
time,
The living throne, the sapphire blaze,
it binds the angels of Heaven, the Seraphim,
full of love, the Cherubim, full of knowledge:
above all, it binds, in self-imposed bonds, a
just and omnipotent God. 1t is of this, and
not of any earthly law, that Hooker speaks
in that magnificent period which sounds like
an anthem "Of law no less can be said,
than that her seat is the bosom of God, her
voice the harmony of the world all things
in Heaven and earth do her homage, the very
least as feeling her care, the greatest as not
exempted from her power; both angels and
men, and creatures of what condition soever,
though each in different sort and manner, yet
all with uniform consent admiring her as the
mother OF their peace and joy"
We are struck with horror and our hair
stands on end, at the report of a single muir
der; we think of the soul that has been hur-
ried TO its final accounts; we seek the muir
derer; and the law puts forth its energies to
secure his punishment. Viewed in the clear
light of truth, what are war and battle but
organized murder; murder of malice afoTe-
thought; in cold blood through the opera
ton of an extensive machinery of crime ;
with innumerable hands at incalculable cost
of money through subtle contrivances of
cunning and skill; or by the savage brutal
assault? Was not the Scythian right, when
he said to Alexander, Thou boastest that
the only design of thy marches is to extir-
pate robbers; thou thyself art the greatest
robber in the world.p Among us one class
of sea-robbers is hanged as pirates; another
is hailed with reclamation
lille crucem ~sceleris pretium tulit, hic dia-
dema.*
II was amidst the thunders which made
Sinai tremble, that God declared "Thou
shalt not kill - and the voice Of these thun-
ders, with this commandment, has been pro-
lonqed to our own day in the echoes OF
Christian churches. What mortal shall re-
strain the application of these words Who
on earth is empowered to vary or abridge the
commandments of God? Who shall presume
to declare, that this injunction was directed,
not to nations; but to individuals only not
to many, but to one only that one may not
kill, but that many may that it is forbidden
to each individual to destroy the life of a
i Juvenal, Sat XIII. I05.