The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-19


The law Of God never commands Us to disobey
the law of man. Sancia Lcariote ora pro nobis.
1t is little strange to hear this talk in Boston,
and hear the doctrine of passive obedience TO law
the faces of Adams, and Hancock, and Washing
ton! IL is amazing 70 hear this talk, respecting
such Il law, amongst merchants. DO they keep
the usury laws? ] never heard Of but one money
lender who kept them, and he has been long time
dead, and think he left no kIth or kin! The tenn
perance law, is that kept? The fifteen gallon law
were men so passive in their obedience to that,
that they could not even agitate' yet it violated
no law of God-was not unchristan. When the
Government nerferes with the rlm-seller's pro-
perty, the Law must be trod under foot; but when
| the law insists that man shall be made slave,
| must give up conscience in my act of prayer,
and stoop 10 the vile law men have made in their
act Of passion
1t is curious to hear men talk Of law and order
in Boston, when the other day one or two hun
dred smooth faced boys and youths, beardIess as
girls, could disturb meeting Of three or four
thousand men, for two hours long, and the chief
Of the police, and the mayor of the city stood and
looked on, when a single word from their lips
might have stilled the tumult, and given men
hearing.
Talk of keeping the Fugitive slave law Come,
come, we know better Men in New England
know better than this We knop that zoe must not
keep ,cicked iap, and that it should not be kept
t0hsa the ia,o Of God |orbids!
But the effect of a law which men cannot keep
without violating conscience, is always democrat
iZng. There are men who know no higher law
than the statute Of the State. When good men
cannot keep law that is base, some bad ones will
say, Let US keep no law at ALL then where does
the blame lie' Ga him that enacts the outrageous
law
But the idea that statute OF man frees us from
obligation to the law of God, is dreadful thing
When that becomes the deliberate conviction Of
the great mass of the people, North South, then
shall despair Of justice, and despair Of God. But
it will never come.
One of the most awful spectacles ever saw was
this:-A vast multitude attempting at an orator .
| suggestion, TO howl down the higher law, and
when he said, Will you have this man to rule over
you' they answered, 'Never' and treated the
'higEer law to Il laugh and howl. 1t was done
| in Tnneuil Hail. under the eyes Of the three Ad-
amses, Hancock and Washington, and the howl
| rung round the venerable arches of that hall, and
one could but ask, why do the heather rage, and
the people imagine vain thing, and the rulers of
the earth set themselves, and kings take counsel
against the Lord and say, Let break his bands
asunder, and cast off his yoke from US; and |
could not but remember that it was written, 'He
| that stitch in the heavens shall laugh the Lord
shall have them in derision. He iakelh up the
isles as very little thing, and the inhabitants OF
the earth are as grasshoppers before him. Howl
down the law Of God at Il Abstracts command
Do this in Boston! Let us remember this but with
charity.
Men say there is danger Of disunon, Of our
losing featy for the Constitution. | do not be-
Iieve it yet! Suppose it be so. The Constitution
is the machinery Of the national mill; and sun
pose we agree to take it out and put in new-we
might get worse, very true, but we might get bet
ter. There have been some modern improve
ments; might introduce them to the State as
well as the mill. But do not believe there is this
danger. do not believe the people Of Massachu-
sets believe so. ! think they are stronsy at
tached to the Union yet, and if they thought 'the
Union was in peril this day, and every thing the
nation prizes likely to be destroyed, we should
not have had meeting of few thousands in
Fanenl Hall, but the people would have filed up
the city OF Worcester with hundred thousand
men, If need be; and they would have come with
the cartrldge-box by their side, and the freock on
their shoulder. That is the way the people 81
Massachusetts would assemble, il they though,
there real danger.
: do not believe u South will withdraw from
the Union, with five million freemen and three
) million slaves think Massachusetts would be
no loser, think the North would he no loser; but
doubt If the North would allow them TO go, If
so disposed
But think | know Of one cause which may
dissolve the Unlon-one which ought to dissolve
II, if put in action that is, serious attempt To
execute tn Fugitive slave law here and in all the
: North. | mean an attempt to recover and take
back all the fugitive slaves in the North, and To
punish with fine and imprisonment all who aid OF
conceal them. The South has brow beat us agar
and again. She has smitten us on the one cheel
with 'prntection,' and we have turned the other
D kissing the rod; she has smitten that with 'fret
= trade She has imprisoned our citizens: driven
3 off, with and Ioathng, our officers sent to
. ask constitutional justice. She has spit upon u.s.
Let her come 10 take back the iugitives-and
trust me, she will wake up the lion.'
In my humble opinion, this law is wedge
sharp at one end, but wide at the other-put ir
between the lower rlanks Of our ship of State. ]
1t be driven home, we must go to pieces. But
have 70 thought that that will be done, quite vet
believe the great politicians who threaten to drv
It through the gaping seams Of our argosy, will
) think twice before they strike again. Nay, tina
t they will soon be very willing to bury the wedg
: where the tide Gibbs and flows four times day.
do not expect this Of their courage, but of thei
" fears; not OF their justice-I am too old for that
-, but of their concern for property, which j, is thu
great object of government to protect.