The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-05-07

immediate scene of that great outrage. Some
OF our spiritual guides appear to think that
they are set apart not, among other things.
to inculcate the divine precept which enjoins
obedience to the civil ruler, but for the spe-
cifc purpose of raising the dcriI. They real
ly seem to think il necessary to salvation that
the community should be baptized anew in
fire and blood. The New York Evangelical
Congregational Association had passed the
following resolutions "ResoIued, That while
we recognise the obligation to obey the laws of
the land, we make an exception in the case of
all such provisions as contravene the higher
law of God. Resolrcd, That we advise all
persons to render every needfnl aid and com
fort to fugitive slaves. just the same il there
were no law in the land forbidding it," In
these resolves these consecrated followers Of
Jesus have clearly mistaken their great file
leader, and are treading, manfestly, in the
steps Of the DEVIL their language is the Ian
guage of traitors, and they are marching
straghtway to anarchy, treason, and rebellion,
and stimulating the community to civil war.
look upon the men who passed these treason
able resolutions as knot of the very worst
citizens. the prirna faeie evidence Of their
bands TO the contrary Notwithstanding.
Was ever solemn nonsense and the very
essence of treason so absurdly labelled-or-
thodory, They ''recognise their obligation to
obey the La,cs of the land"-with an exception.
What exception "Such provisions as contra
uene the higher la,cs Of God" beseech the
community to look at this. Who shall decide
the question Vhat provisions cOatrarene, Sea-
The Lords spiritual? Shall it be left to an
ecclesiastical council of evangelical free solers2
Shall the New York Evangelical Congrega-
tional Association be set up in the place of the
| Gu I'LL, De- Al
chair instead of Chief Justice Marshall or some
other learned and competent arbitrator No.
Probably the sovereign people are hardly pre-
pared to go back into the leading strings of
concaves and synods and give up the Coke and
Blackstone, and pick up their higher law. for
thepresent practical occasions Of society, from
the Pentateuch. No; the rule-the only ac-
ceptable rule, must be quisque pro Sc. Aristo-
planes believed that he carried frog in his
belly, and every good citizen must believe he
carries about with him, wherever he goes,
little portable supreme judicial court in the very
same place. Every mans conscence-includ-
ing, necessarily, those that are scared with
hot iron-is infallible Here alone will he find
that higher lao which contrayenes all human
law. There are men who, like John Milton,
are restrained from polygamy by human laws
alone. The Evangelicals of the Poughkeepsie
convention commend to all such the higher law!
There is no lack of people who fully believe
they have good right to a portion Of their
neighbours goods. How grateful they must feel
to those reverend bIockheads of the Congrega-
tional Association who have made them ac-
quainted with this "great medicine" as the
Indians would call it, the higher la,c!
1t will be found not more difficult to call
brigade of boisterous boys to order, after you
hay III han fbop
constituted as it commonly is, after you shall
have effectually indoctrinated them with this
agreeable notion of higher Lap. Nothing can
well be imagined more destructive of all sense
of legal responsibility. This pleasant fancy of
the higher lao may be brought forward for one
particular object; but, if such consummate nom
sense were tolerated for moment, it would
soon become thing of universal application;
and thousands would be found violating their
legal and social relations, and justifying their
folies and their crimes, by appeals to the higher
lac.
1t is not long since an individual, respecta-
bly, engaged, few years ago, in the hardware
business in Boston, and more recently a resi-
dent in Roxbury, repudiated his lawful wife,
under the mysterious impellings of the higher
lao. He was an ultra Millerite--she was not
an ultra. He gave her carte blanche TO do as
she pleased; and believing himself set apart
by the higher la,c to beget full-blooded Miller
lite children, he sought out female Millerite
after his own heart, and they went into business
together, without ceremony and without con-
cealment. The good people of Norfolk speedily
applied the lo,cer la,c; and thinking themselves
authorized to put asunder those whom the devil
had joined together, assigned them separate
dormitories in the house of correction. SIGMA.