The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-16
Northern sentiment.


slave law--and slavery. 1t Is from the pen OF
HEsRY WARD BREcHER, an eminent Presbyte-
rian minister at Brooklyn, New York, and an
editor Of the Independent, paper in the city Of
New York. The article, we think, expresses,
what are called, the religious opinions OF the
North. We subjoin some commentaries on it,
not with the expectation Of producing much ef-
feet on Northern fanatieism. but to present the
moral position of the South before that tribunal
of public opinion to which, to some extent, all
civilized people are amenable.
The Law OF CONSCIENCE. There are thou
sands who say that this law must be obeyed (;
and who, with the next breath, bravely aud gem
erously declare, that nevertheless, should a dis
trcssed fugitive ask succor, shelter and guidance,
at their hand, be should have them. But this is
breaking the law. To keep this law, you must
not shelter slave mother fleeing TO her free
husband in the North nor slave girl, whose
foot bounds, at the sound of a pursurer, rs if it
were the knel of virtue. You must not give
direction to fugitive though his head be white,
and his old limbs reveal half a century of unrc-
Quilted toll; though man say to you, in the law
full agony of his soul, aKill me, but for the love
of God, do not betray ne !" the law enjoins you
to go with the officer, if he summon you, and
help in his arrest! The minister Of the Gospel,
the humane philanthropst, peacefully walking to
the misunderstanding bell, must turn aside and
help some scoundrel hireling to run down his
slave, if the marshal command him, or break the
law! 3aFfaa
1t is not once in century that a law appears
which obliges citizen to smother every convic-
ton of truth that he may rob a fellow-being Of
every right, and thus make him trangressor
against his eonscienceif he obey the law and
against the law if he heed his conscience ia
transgressor in his own eyes; which ever course
he take! sisg.l lsyggsf e,ss to.f, .ty y. ~
But is it so Is tQAcitizen bound to obey
erery law2 No. TRefe is another truth that
is deep and necessary to public virtue and per-
manent public thrift as that which we may have
laid open, Every citizen must obey law which
infcts injury upon his person, estate, and civil
privilege, until legally redressed but no citizen
is bound to obey a law which commands him to
inaict injury upon another We must endure,
but never commit wrong. We must be patient
when sinned against, but never sin against
others. The law may heap injustice upon me !;
but no law can authorize me to pour injustice
upon another. When the law commanded Dam
lei not to pray; he disobeyed it; when it CON-
manded him to be cast into the lions den, he
submitted. - 49, AsE@ p t5#fs{7#
A law which enjoins upon citizen the COM
mission Of q crime, and still more, Of an open,
disgraceful, and Hagtious crime has violated the
confidence of the citizen, and is dissolved in the
courts of God the moment it is enacted.
This is no new doctrine. 1t underlies the
history Of our institutions it is associated with
the Non-conformist and the Puritan; it has been
made instrious by the repatriation Of our
fathers, and thar pilgrimage hithcr. 1t was the
glory Of the pulpit then, to teach the supremacy
of conscience over human law. 1t is not less
glorious now. The sacred rights of disobedence
to law which violates the conscience was the
parent of our civil and religious liberty. Shall
we now call our mother harlot? But for this
right the very men who now denounce it would
have been peasants or golfers. They are crying
for the leeks and onions of Egypt. They ought
never to have been brought out of bondage
Liberty Of conscience is but another name for lib
erty of resistance to legal invasion ofconscience
Let those Degenerate creatures that den0unce
the pulpit for this truth 60 back to the looms or
the potteries Of England. Nay. they will find
the weayers and thinkers Of England able to teach
them what be the first principles of liberty of
conscience For, oppression has there steadily
moved these men towards tho doctrines OF lib
erty. But in, republican America, oppression
has steadily drawn the public back towards doc
trines Of tyranny. We are battling again in
America the very questions of past ages.
and religious liberty; the right to teach men;
(Which slavery makes felony;) the right of
free discussion--these are re-opened questions
All the exploded casuistries of tyranny are re-
coined and put again into circulation, The pull
pitan all religious papers arc put to shame for
asserting the word-renowned principles Of the
Puritans, by men who had they lived in the days
of our fathers, would have helped to burn them,
or run begging to the king for their confiscated
Estates. They who belieue in The doctrines Of The
Puritans are the dccendents of the Puritans--
He who does not, is bastard, though the blood
of twenty generations of Puritans coursed in his
veins, aT1.2s a@'lt '<s,.a Y 61ra"a.9S Vi 1893! 3.
II If onlyvenal politicians and moralists of the
Price Currant school, should regard the right of
resistance to laacs commanding aoickedness as
dangerous, we should not suffer alarm. We
should soon make it more profitable to believe
the contrary, and then they would instantly be
converted But if the great body Of our citizens,
and especially our religious citizens, are to re-
gard this rs new and dangerous doctrine, then
the shadow upon the dial has gone back hun
bred years! But it has not gone back. The
spontaneous lnuiBHttiUH VI LIE NOtt, VIC iouu
and unequivocal declaration that the Fugitive
slave law shall not be executed, shows that
Puritan blood vet sustains Puritan doctrine d.
~ We make no apology whatsoeverfor this doc
trine Of resistance. We do not nicely argue,
weigh and balance the matter we do not guard
and discriminate, patch and smooth it, five were
introducing foreign heresy. 1t is our patri-
mony. We never knew any other doctrine.
We are not proseytes, but interiors We are
proud to avow our fathers principles against
every ipsidious doctrine Of tyranny which,
stealthiIy creeping from the wolfden of slavery
and covering its brindied hide here Ia the North
with the villainous counterfeit of sheepskin,
rambles up and down the ways of commerce,
with the simplicity Of a sheep in its reasonings
and the ferocity of wolf in its heart! b. =
We stand then upon old foundations. The
doctrine is venerable. This doctrine was re-
ceived from the primitive Christians, and they
took it from the New Testament, and it received
it from God The laws, business, customs, and
pleasure of ancient communities were so thor
ouUl,Iv f,iptnd with tho ritas If idnlntry that